A week of holiday, then confinement

 We've had a week of holiday this week, during which I have studiously and furiously avoided anything resembling work. We didn't actually go away, but we signed up for some guided walks in Bordeaux.

On Tuesday we did "Bordeaux, the plague and coronavirus". It was fascinating. We walked the old town walls and saw some streets that were so badly infested with plague that the city authorities just burnt them down. We saw how the city was ravaged by successive waves of plague and of cholera, how the water supplies were easily contaminated, how the gates were closed to any outsiders and how the level of deatsh in the surrounding areas so deprived the city of nourishment that the Bordelais resorted to eating the moss off the trees, the dogs, cats and rats and, allegedly, the dead.

Wednesday brought "300 heads in 300 days" and we saw the traces in the town of the amazing "Year 2" of the revolution, otherwise known as "The Terror" when the calendar was changed, when the Goddess Reason was enthroned in the Temple of Reason (the Eglise Notre Dame) and heads rolled in the Place Gambetta (then called Place Nationale). 

Yesterday was more leisurely and more modern with a walk through an area we know pretty well, the Parc des Angeliques on the right bank of the city. Our guide described the new constructions of these past few years and explained the architects' intentions, as well as pointing out some of the vestiges of the area's industrial past. We came home via a short ride on the city's electric shuttle boat. It was a pleasant time.

Now we're confined again. I think the rules are more or less as before, except that people can go to work if they can't work from home, and the schools are open. Non-essential shops are closed. Marriages and funerals can take place but with a limit of 6 and 30 people attending respectively. We can leave the flat to get essential shopping from a nearby supermarket, and to exercise for up to an hour a day within 1 km of our home. Parks will stay open, but none are near enough for us to use.

We're thankful to have seen our two weddings take place over the past few weeks, one last weekend! We're also thankful for a light and pleasant flat with good views, and for having spent a good part of this week exploring the city.

In the future Jardins de l'Ars the work continues. It looks today as if peopel are taking soil samples.

The church will resume life online.   



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